*SCANS* Robert Pattinson interview with ‘Best Movie’ – Italy

Translation

He wears a green and yellow plaid shirt, black sneakers with thick soles and thick cotton socks. He wears a pair of light colored pants, which seem to have been worn by him for a week. When he speaks, he keeps his head slightly angled, he breaks his sentences; suddenly he stares at me, with a crocked smile and watch me like he was thinking “Do you really care about this?” Of all the stars that you can meet, Robert Pattinson is the one that disguises himself the best. His diversity and his potential are in this askew allure, like his face, like an odd predestination. He seems to be here by accident, and by accident famous, lost and amused, without complacence. For instance, talking about his sex scene with Julianne Moore in Maps To The Stars, he is able to say: ”It was our first encounter; it was my first day on set. In Toronto, where we were filming, the weather was steamy hot and I was sweating a lot. She is one of those absurd people that don’t sweat at all. Ever. So, think what a situation, I was trying not to wet her back with my sweat! And I must have looked so weird to her eyes because she kept asking me: “Are you alright?”

At 28 years old he seems to find himself in a zone of his career that he likes. Escaped from the post Twilight frets, he committed himself in avoiding scripts made to keep him stuck to an image of himself that he doesn’t recognize, and he is becoming a constant presence in very important film festivals. After the double commitment with Cronenberg (Cosmopolis and Maps To The Stars), he filmed Queen Of The Desert, by Werner Herzog (a movie about the legendary life of Gertrude Bell), and in the meanwhile in autumn his movie, The Rover, will hit the scene in the Italian theaters. The Rover is the new movie of David Michod, a young Australian director, well known for his fabulous film noir Animal Kingdom (2010) that was screened in Cannes. Guy Pearce was cast in Animal Kingdom in the role of a policeman and in this new post-apocalyptic thriller, all filmed in the Australian outback, he plays the role of a man robbed of his last owning: a car that hides a secret. So begins this story in which he (Guy) chases after the men who stole his car, with the help of a disturbed and confused guy that has the face of Robert Pattinson.

HOW WAS WORKING WITH GUY? THERE ARE SOME INTENSE SCENES BETWEEN THE TWO OF YOU
“It was amazing! His character is totally different from him, he (Eric) has to keep (me) constantly under pressure. He reminds me of a sort of Terminator, with less scary facial features. It is easy to fall in playing a caricature in those situations, instead of being really terrified. It was weird to share the scene with someone that had to be so manichaean, all black or white. It has created very interesting dynamics.”

AND WHAT DO YOU HAVE TO SAY ABOUT YOUR CHARACTER? HE IS A STRANGE GUY THAT IS NOT ABLE TO EXPRESS HIMSELF.
“I had a quite clear idea about him, when I first read the script. Never in my career I worked so hard for an audition. I rehearsed my lines 12 hours a day for weeks, I was obsessed with them. I worked with my voice, trying to find a peculiar accent. But once I had the part, I’ve never felt so free in my acting. I didn’t have any limit. The first thing I asked to David was: “Is my character mentally challenged?” And he answered “I don’t know, you decide.”

AND WHAT DID YOU DECIDE? EVEN AFTER SEEING THE MOVIE IS THERE STILL A DOUBT?
“I answered to myself that he is a person who has been said “You are a disabled”. Actually he is a shy and insecure guy who grew up in a hard setting, with people constantly beating him up and telling him to shut up. He arrived to a point in which he thinks he doesn’t have to think anymore, it’s enough to follow other’s orders. So he gave up his own personality. A bullied guy in a way. And when Eric speaks with him and he asks him a question, he doesn’t know what to do because it never happened to him before. For this reason Eric that is seen by everyone as an asshole, is actually the only one that really sees him.

AFTER SEEING CAMP X REY WITH KRISTEN STEWART I THOUGHT THAT SHE IS GOING THROUGH A PERIOD, IN HER LIFE, WHICH RESEMBLES A LOT TO YOURS. DO YOU TWO STILL COMPARE YOUR MUTUAL CHOICES ABOUT YOUR CAREERS?
“No. Not really. But we both had the same concepts about which kind of movie we wanted to do. Until two years ago, I didn’t have a clear idea about what I wanted. Filming Cosmopolis, presenting it in Cannes, really helped me to understand what I really like. Cosmopolis has been an unexpected experience that allowed me to get to know a world I love: I would do anything to be in Cannes every year.

SINCE WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THIS… WAS IT A RELIEF TO KNOW THAT CRONENBERG HAD NEVER SEEN TWILIGHT?
“For me it makes no difference. I any case I would have auditioned for that role. I’ve always tried to do different things for every role I played. It doesn’t really matter to me if a director has seen my previous movies, because, in any case, I will do something different and unique for him.”
RECENTLY YOUR CHOICES HAVE BEEN ORIENTED TOWARDS DIRECTORS WHO LOVE TO MAKE A DARKER KIND OF MOVIE, LIKE CRONENBERG OR HERZOG OR MICHOD HIMSELF. HAVE YOU EVER FELT THIS PASSION FOR THIS KIND OF MOVIE?
“It’s not important to me. Herzog’s movie, for instance, will be not so dark. It’s more an adventure kind of movie. I made a list of the 20 directors I would like to work with: with them all I will play anything, no matter what. It’s enough for me to work with them. In the last years I understood that if you work with the best directors in the end you will be always content with the final result. And you will be always put in a challenging situation.”
20 DIRECTORS, BUT YOU STILL CAME BACK TO WORK AGAIN WITH CRONENBERG
“I said yes, without even reading the script. I like to work with him and I like his movies. I realized, in the last years, that I’ve been having entertaining relationships with some directors, even before any script was written. I was tired of waiting. And then, suddenly, everything started to work perfectly.”
WHO DID YOU MEET?
“I went out to some dinners with James Gray, trying to work with him. We still keep in touch, you never know! (he laughs). Usually we go out to have a drink together, but I never stalked them with strange letters!”
DO YOU TOTALLY EXCLUDE TO DO SOMETHING SIMILAR TO TWILIGHT IN FUTURE?
“I have had other offers for similar roles. But I’ve never been part of that kind of actors “for Majors”. Surely being part of Twilight has put me in that position in a certain way. But I don’t feel comfortable at all in the middle of a blockbuster or a franchise. Apart from Twilight and Harry Potter, the only other big production I have been part of is Water for Elephants. And anyway it was not a huge production, with its 35 million dollar budget. And it wasn’t a franchise. After Twilight I made decisions that was okay for me. I did what I wanted to do.”

IN THE END, CAN YOU TELL US SOMETHING ABOUT QUEEN OF THE DESERT?
“In few words I wanted to work with Herzog, even in a small role. He is an interesting person, and I was more nervous to meet him than to play my role. The movie tells the story of Gertrude Bell. I play the part of Colonel Thomas Lawrence, even if I’ve never seen Lawrence of Arabia. I know it is incredible! My role is a minor character in the main character’s vicissitudes. Herzog is great person; he can tell you an infinite amount of crazy anecdotes. He is eccentric and funny, incredibly sure about himself.”